1942 S/S FS501 Jefferson Nickel RPM with diagnostics
Aspie_Rocco
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1942 was another year that saw a plethora of varieties for US coinage. Nickels saw a composition change, various denominations had multiple DDO, RPM, and DDR varieties. It is one of my favorite years for coins so I will share a few RPMs today.
The easiest diagnostic for quick assessment is the spike protruding from the back of Jefferson’s neck that points at the space between the 9 and 4 of the date. On later die stages there is crack in a Very specific location coming from the base of Monticello down through the right side of the N in Cents to the O of OF. This particular crack is closer to the E of Monticello than it is to the L. Late die stage examples also exhibit die polish lines, I infer these are leftovers from efforts to remove the spike in the neck. 
Later die stage examples 
Shots to accentuate the crack 
Comments
With that "spike" protruding from Jeffs back, you can't miss this one,.
A nice BIG RPM, too.
Pete
That’s great information and I for one appreciate you taking the time to share it with us. 👍👍
I got one somewhere from segs. Nice coin ya got
Yes, 1942 was an interesting year... for nickels.... AND people...
.... After all, that is the year I began... Cheers, RickO